Notching my belt

I forgot to mention a little fun milestone for the changes in my body. The belt that I wear all the time hocked into the 5th hole yesterday! I mean, its leather, so maybe its just stretching, but I don't think so. When I first bought the belt a couple of years ago, I could only fit it into #2. Then I lost a bunch of weight and alternated between 3 and 4 for the past year or more. But today it fit into hole #5! It's the last hole. I will have to buy a new belt if I lose many more inches!

Speaking of which, I keep taking photos that I mean to upload, but never remember when I get home in the evening. I've been measuring periodically, but after noticing the belt hole thing, I measured again to make sure I wasn't crazy and the belt had stretched.

My underbust was still 34, my waist still 29, my navel was 33(!!) and my hips were 41 (!!) over jeans! So it totally makes sense that the "belt" region is losing inches! I've definitely been able to see it around the lower abs where I have the little girlish belly bump. You know the one right below your navel? In old ladies it turns into this belly sack! I never, ever, ever want a belly sack, so I need to get rid of it before my body gets used to storing fat there.

Tonight I have muscle conditioning, which should be fun. I'll try to do a quick 4 mile run after class and before my upper body work. Today I think I'm going to go with heavy weights again, since I'll do a lot of lighter-rep work with muscle conditioning. I've read in some articles that you can change up within a routine rather than within a week.

Oh, bootcamp class was cancelled this morning so I slept in. :( But it means I Got 8 hours of sleep. I'm really working hard to sleep enough. Even if its pushing a lot of my workouts into the evening. Once I get the sleeping length in tact, I'll start to shift back to going to bed earlier to make everything a morning workout.

Food Log: I've been having a carb-heavy diet still, according to my ratios. Today I'm trying to add some whey protein in with my yogurt after my workout, to boost my protein consumption at least. Eventually I'll snag the info on the zone diet - see if I can pick things from the blocks. I don't think I'll start that until May, however. I just want to work within the food I have and enjoy now.

Last night I made the quinoa with just water and some garlic. In the future I'm going to need to find a good way to flavor it without boullion. I'm going to search for low-sodium broth/boullion this weekend, along with some low-sodium soy sauce. I like the protein content of the soy sauce, but hate the sodium aspect. So I don't think its a tool that I should entirely turn my back on. We'll see what I can find. Last night when I made the "sauce" I used 1/2 tablespoon of soy sauce with water and garlic. It gave the veggies/tofu a little flavor, but not to much. I put the full amount on this list for nutritional info, but quicte frankly, most of it cooked onto the bottom of the pan. I'm sure I ended up with a lot less, honestly.

Breakfast (420/10.5/368/69/18/21)
1 cup Optimum Slim (180/2.5/250/38/11/9)
10 dried cranberries (40/0/0/11/1/0)
2 Tbsp ground flaxseed (120/8/8/8/6/4)
1 cup skim milk (80/0/120/12/0/8)

Snack
Barlett Pear (100/1/0/25/4/1)
12 almonds (81/7/0/3/1.5/3)

Lunch (222.5/6/240/24/4.5/16)
1/2 cup of quinoa, cooked (100/2/6/20/2.5/4)
1/4 tofu (100/4/0/2/1/9)
sauce (2.5/0/230/0/0/1)
mushrooms + baby bok choy (20/0/4/2/1/2)

Snack
1 blood orange (70/1/0/15/3/1)
12 almonds (81/7/0/3/1.5/3)

Post-Workout
4 oz nonfat plain yogurt (50/0/80/7.5/0/5)
1 tsp agave nectar (20/0/0/5/0/0)
1/2 packet Whey Protein Strawberry (55\0\75\0\0\12.5)

Dinner
1 egg (77/5/62/1/0/6)
2 slices deli ham (50/1/240/2.5/0/7.5)
1 Tbsp fat free ricotta (11/0/19/1/0/1.5)
*
1/2 cup pomegranate ff froyo (90/0/55/18/0/3)


Totals: (1327.5\24.5\1147\174\32.5\80.5)
Ratios: 220.5-696-322 (1238.5)
18%-56%-26%

1.5L water
2 16-oz teas
Totals: 83 oz

Evening Update

Tonight I went to muscle conditioning. Catherine was back, so the class was awesome. I was feeling shaky muscles as we went through this. She fell back to some of her classic high reps, but included plyometrics (jump squats x 3!).

We learned a very cool new ab move. "The Hover" - Imagine you're laying on your back. Your legs are lifted to tabletop, or 90 degrees in the air. Your back is in "imprint" (lower back touching the ground, abs tensed). With your legs pressed together, staying at the 90 degree angle, slowly lower your feet towards the ground to touch your toes. Except you don't. You stop with 1 inch between your feet and the floor. Then you start doing crunches. Your legs can't move. They're perfectly still. Your feet stay 1" from the floor. Yup, crunches. Oh, yeah, and is your lower back still in imprint? Totally flat against the floor? Because you can't let it arch. Hella hard, even for someone who does a lot of pilates.

We also did some teaser-like sit-ups with a barbell. Your feet are, again, not touching the ground. You execute a full sit-up and balance at the top with a straight back. Luckily you get to use a hand weight to help "pull up" which you hold at a 45 degree angle with straight arms (soft elbows). Fun times.

After a tough muscle conditioning class, I then went for a run. I was so sluggish. My legs were just busted today. I did the 4 mile lap in 36 minutes. Yikes. Embarrassing. My legs felt like lead weights though. I'm really not sure what was up. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.

After the run, I returned to do upper body. I was in a crunch for time, so I only did 3 sets of exercises. I did heavy weight at 6-8 reps (10 for cable crossover). I did go heavier than Tuesday though! I feel my strength increase every week.

Cable Triceps Pushdown (75lb)/Biceps (62.5lb)
Delt Raise (12.5)/Crossover (25lb)
Assisted Pull-ups (10 reps x 2, 75 assts - I went down, but I was pooped tonight)
Rows (85lb/Chest Press (80lb)
Lat Pulldown (85lb!!)/Shoulder Press (44lb)
(We did a bunch of push-ups in class, as well as plank-to-pushups; her classes are always upperbody intensive)